Douglas C-47/DC-3 'Skytrain' | Planes of Fame Air Museum

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Douglas C-47/DC-3 'Skytrain'

HISTORY

The DC-3 was born when American Airlines requested that Douglas Aircraft enlarge its DC-2 transport to accommodate passenger berths. The Douglas Sleeper Trans- port (DST) became the DC-3 when the cabin was configured with seven rows of three seats. The first DC-3 was delivered to American Airlines on 8August 1936. By the end of the decade, most major airlines had DC-3's in their fleets.
When World War II broke out, the DC-3 was quickly pressed into service. As the "Dakota" in RAF and Commonwealth service and the C-47 or "Gooney Bird" in U.S. service, the airplane flew in every theater and carried every cargo imaginable. Perhaps the C-4Ts greatest contribution to the Allied victory came in the China/Burmal/lndia Theater. C-47s flew "the Hump" (the Himalayan Mountains) through atrocious weather to deliver the supplies that kept China in the war. Post-war, the DC-3/C-47 still had important work to do. It returned to airline service until replaced by more modern types. It flew in the Berlin Airlift, during 1948-49.
In Vietnam, the venerable Gooney Bird became the AC- 47 or "Puff, the Magic Dragon" when three 7.62mm mini-guns were mounted to fire out the left side of the cabin, creating the first of a new class of aircraft: gunships.

Planes of Fame Air Museum's aircraft, although painted in the livery of Pacific Southwest Airlines, is actually a military C-47 being restored to flight as a C-47.
World War II combat veteran